Constriction
by honeyxtea
Summary: In which death isn't an easy thing to overcome, and even when you live again in a different life, it will still be hard to find your way.
1. Chapter 1

**This came into my sick and twisted mind and I decided I wanted to make a cross over. Wahoo. Well I hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

Her eyes looked skyward into oblivion. She couldn't feel. She couldn't see. She couldn't even hear the heart wrenching pleas of Naruto at her side.

"_SAKURA! PLEASE HOLD ON PLEASE!" _

These distant voices misted over her. She wanted so desperately to grasp onto them, to hear them. To comfort the owner of the voice that seemed so achingly despairing, but all she knew now was a numbing sense of sadness. She had lost the battle, and the blood seeping from the gaping hole in her stomach made that pretty obvious.

Sasuke had done this. He had broken his ties, just like he wanted. Sakura wondered longingly if he was enjoying the sight of the color draining from her face, the desperate screams and saddened faces of his former comrades. After all this was his goal, right?

Her heart ached, as if it was asking her to just give up. After everything her poor heart had been through, it seems that this was the last straw.

_Thump-thump-thump_

"_Thank you, Sakura." _

_Thump-thump_

"_I'll bring him back, I promise!" _

_Thump_

"_I hate people who lie to themselves, Sakura." _

Her heart couldn't take it anymore, it was as if all of the stitches of her former wounds opened up, exposing all the ugly feelings of love, betrayal, and lies.

A dull shriek came from the world around her. Who had screamed? Was it her? She couldn't tell, her body felt too dead. Like it was decaying into nothingness, the pain was almost numbing. The only thing that was louder than the pain was the beating of her heart. Maybe her heart was screaming, it was obviously in the most pain. She could try to heal herself, but it would be useless. Her chakra was already depleted and she was to far gone.

Her vision blackened. A thudding started in her ears, and the screams ended, even the pain was starting to dull. Maybe she would live after all!

But the slowing beat of her heart made that sliver of hope vanish.

So this was her time after all. After every heart ache, and battle that she had gone through, this was the end.

"_SAKURA!"_

She only hoped that Naruto would forgive her, for being such a weak hearted fool.

.

.

.

And with that, Sakura Haruno's heart came to a halt.

X-X-X

**Please leave me a review, guest or not. Seriously they make my day. So yeah. This is just testing the waters, pm if you have any pairings you want. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Dude, so literally I was planning on updating this like the day after I had started writing, but then I started hating what I had written so I deleted it all. Then I didn't get a chance to redo it because my parents took away my laptop so yeah, I apologize.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or One piece or any of its characters **

A consistent swaying woke her. The smell of salt filled her nostrils, and the sound of crashing waves was prominent to her ears.

Was she at sea? The last time she had checked heaven (or hell), had not included the ocean in its description. Not that there was a brochure on that kind of thing, but she was pretty sure that heaven included clouds, wings, and halos. Even hell had a certain expectation to it, like a burning pit of doom or something.

Viridian eyes fluttered open, and Sakura found that her vision was hazed as if she was looking through dirty glass, and a subtle throbbing began in her head, cracking against her brain like a whip. The chakra that pumped through her system felt thin, and she was sure she had almost none left.

She released an aching groan from her vocal chords as she twisted her back, until a satisfying crack resounded.

Her muscles ached, and her chest felt heavy. Weren't you supposed to feel light and airless as a spirit? Or like see-through or something? She had expected death to be different, like where were all the despairing ghosts?

All of this didn't add up, nothing seemed right. It's not that she believed in all those folk lore on death to be true, but she thought this would be different.

Suddenly, something in her brain clicked.

Maybe she wasn't in some other worldly place after all. Maybe Naruto had saved her with some weird Kyuubi technique!

Sakura quickly snipped that theory out of her brain. She was positive she had died. If there was anything she was sure of in this situation, it was that she had died in cold blood. There had been a fucking hole in her stomach for god's sake!

So if she wasn't in heaven, then…

"Where the fuck am I?" She murmured, as she cradled her head in her hands.

Suspicion was creeping into her system. Had she been captured? Is she in some sort of spirit world?

Several hundred questions sprang up in Sakura's brain, and she felt her dazed state start to fade away, and the throbbing lessened, but her confusion did not cease as she gazed at the dimly lit wooden room that surrounded her.

Crates and barrels were stacked haphazardly all around her, and the sound of crashing waves was almost over-powering.

It didn't take much analyzing to come to the conclusion that she was in the storage room of a ship, but how she got on the ship in the first place was the question. She was dead, after all.

It seems as if this was the time for an investigation, none of her questions will be answered if she stays in this dank little room.

Lifting herself from her laying position, Sakura's viridian eyes set into determination as she set out for her exploration.

She felt very Naruto-esque at the moment. Exploring was always something that released Naruto's eagerness, it was just another thing that attributed to the beloved person that he was.

_Naruto._ Her heart suddenly ached at the thought of her beloved best friend. She was dead, and thus could no longer be there to comfort him in his state of melancholy. What was worse was that _she_ had caused pain he was suffering from.

But, however much Sakura desired to care for the mourning blond right now, it was not the time. Right now was the time to explore her surroundings. She could fuss over Naruto later.

Beginning on her way, Sakura carefully ventured through the darkness of the cluttered room, letting her hands graze the sides of barrels like a blind man trying to find his way. The multitude of textures that grazed her bare hands made her realize, this ship must hold a _huge_ crew.

She estimated that there must be at least a hundred men on board of this ship, judging by the amount of supplies that surrounded her. And eventually, someone was bound to come into this room. She had to get out of here before someone found her. The pinkette wasn't exactly sure if she was a welcomed passenger on this ship, so it wouldn't be the wisest decision to revel herself just yet.

The first thing she needed to do at the moment is find a door.

Sakura carefully crept over the vast amount of barrels and supplies that were stacked up into somewhat of a pyramid shape, and situated herself at the top, where she could get a comfortable view of the cluttered room. She narrowed her eyes in search of any rays of light shining through the think darkness that consumed the room.

It didn't take long for her hawk-like eyes to spot a sliver of light shimmering through a narrow seam in the wood.

Bingo.

Sakura carefully stepped down the pyramid of barrels, being careful to make her footsteps as silent as possible. Although there weren't any people in the direct vicinity, she couldn't be too careful. After all, the violent waves that crashed against the boat made it difficult for her to hear anything that wasn't, well, water.

Sakura suddenly paused in her onslaught to the door.

Wait. Why couldn't she sense any of their chakra signatures? Even if the people on deck were civilians, they would have chakra signatures right?

She was certain that there were people on this ship. There _had_ to be.

Sakura let out a deep sigh. Yet again, there was another question added to the pinkette's pile of unanswered questions.

"Time to get answers." Sakura mumbled softly, as she leaped down from the pyramid of barrels and crates, landing gracefully in front of the door.

Suddenly, Sakura felt anxiety wash over her as she let her gaze fall upon the bronze knob. Was this really a good idea?

"Yes." She nodded; this was the only way she was going to get answers.

Sakura let her hand graze over the knob, as if testing for traps, then, she grasped it, holding it firmly in her hands.

Steeling herself for what could be a dangerous situation, she slipped the door open a crack, letting her eye peer at the new space.

What she gazed upon was a dim hallway that was lit by empty knobs in the flooring above. There was nothing interesting about the thin hallway except the stair case leading upwards into an area unknown to Sakura.

Mustering up her courage, the pinkette fluidly slipped out from behind the door and pressed herself against the wall. Continuing while she still had the guts, Sakura inched her way over to the stairs, letting her footsteps become the deadly silence of a trained shinobi.

As she came to the last step, her gaze fell on something that made her chest tighten.

Another door.

Assessing the door carefully, Sakura figured that this hunk of wood will probably lead to the deck area, which is where the crew is situated.

Sakura already knew she was treading on thin ice, and if she moved any farther there was a strong chance that she would be caught, and maybe cut up and fed to the sharks, or maybe welcomed like a family member. The latter was highly doubted though, stowaways were hardly treated so kindly, but it was a pleasant thought.

But regardless of the risk, Sakura felt herself compelled to explore. Maybe Naruto had rubbed his recklessness off on her, but before she could stop herself through her thoughtless bout of adrenaline, she found that she had opened the door and had exposed herself to prying eyes.

"_Shit."_ She whispered softly as startled eyes fell onto her form.

So much for subtlety.

"STOWAWAY!" A nameless crew member shouted. Suddenly shouts resounded around her and she felt her legs take action.

_Move._

Her world blurred together as she sprinted past the men that reached out wildly for her. Some had withdrawn swords and some held up their bare knuckles, all however, were prepared to restrain her.

Quickly, as one rather bulky man nearly grasped her arm, she bent her knees and catapulted herself off the ground, letting her foot fall onto one of the more scraggly men's face, and using his height to her advantage, she leaped off of the shocked man's face and onto the mast.

Her feet caught onto the rough wood and she flooded the little chakra she had in her system into her feet, thus, beginning her ascent vertically. Shouts of indignation began bellow her as her feet carried her all the way up the mast. At its very peak she finally received a moment to assess her situation.

And for the first time on her little exploration, Sakura realized she was in _deep shit._

**A/N I got really tired of writing this today, and so I'll just like leave this here for your reading pleasure. I'm trying to build up some suspense; I hope I'm doing a good job of it. Oh, and honestly at the moment, I can't decide where this story is going to go, but I'm leaning towards the Ace x Sakura side of things. But that doesn't mean other pairing won't fit in. **

**Please oh please leave me a review, they make my day, guest or not they make me really happy. Seriously. **

**Thank you ever so much for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N I'm writing this in the morning so just lower your expectations a bit, I'm literally living on caffeine right now and I think it's fair to say it will affect my writing, but if I don't write this now I know it will never get done. **

The harsh sun glared at her through the clouds as Sakura sat still as stone on her perch, keenly analyzing how she can get out of this disheartening situation. The crowd of men in uniforms that circled the mast she was sitting atop of was astounding, how she would ever be able to defeat them all was a mystery to her.

'_Maybe I can just explain my situation to them…' _She thought silently, but she quickly waved away the thought. From the crew's sudden action, and how they almost automatically went into panic, revealed that these men were not going to cooperate willingly.

Her lungs released a deep sigh and she let her shoulders sag slightly, it would be safest for her to just wait things out, she was low on chakra and if she fought she would most certainly faint from chakra depletion. Maybe these men had enough sense to just leave her alone and just go about their duties. Okay, so that was a leap of faith, but what else can she do?

X-X-X

Smoker was never really overly ecstatic when it came to ships, too many things could go wrong. He preferred the safety of solid ground beneath his feet, so when the higher ups asked him to come to their meeting, he was more than weary. However, it seems it was mandatory that he go to this little 'meeting', and seeing how the same people who he was meeting with could demote him in less than a second, he just couldn't refuse their kind offer.

"CAPTAIN!"

Sparing a glance at the panicked face of one of his many subordinates, he let out a puff of smoke and waved at him to continue.

"CAPTAIN! A STOWAWAY WAS FOUND ON DECK!" he bellowed, his eyes wide with panic and fear.

Smoker snorted slightly as he stared down at the man, could his crew not handle one simple man?

"Well, get rid of him then." He said, with irritation dripping from his tone.

"B-But Captain! They're on top of the mast! We can't get to them!" He sputtered with his eyes wide his face displaying an urgency that Smoker didn't care for.

Smoker grunted indignantly and swiveled on his heel quickly, letting his body morph slowly into smoke as he walked out the door, leaving the sputtering subordinate only to watch the mass of smoke rise upward.

X-X-X

Sakura sighed, as she gazed down at the hundred or so men that had gathered below her, each trying to find a way to get her down from her perch. At moments, some kind of metal ball would shoot past her, but she made sure none hit its mark. Sakura hated feeling like such a sitting duck. She felt so vulnerable and useless, but what else could she do?

Shrugging her shoulders slightly she slumped forward and started humming softly as she gazed out into the vast blue sea that surrounded her.

"Must be pretty lonely up here ai?" A gruff voice questioned.

Sakura squeaked and stumbled slightly, nearly falling off the narrow mast, but she caught herself quickly and turned her head sharply to look at the buff man with several cigars filling his mouth, his mint hair was slicked back and his face held a rugged look to it.

"I prefer to be alone, so if you could kindly leave." She said calmly, letting her viridian eyes assess how difficult it would be to escape in case the man decided to restrain her.

He chuckled slightly and took a step forward, and Sakura took a step back, eyeing him wearily.

"What do you want?" She asked firmly, puffing out her chest as a lacking mode of intimidation.

"Well, what do you expect me to do? You're a stowaway, clearly unwelcome on the ship, so I'm here to see you off." He said without hesitation, letting a puff of smoke blow into her face.

Coughing slightly, Sakura looked up at him with something akin to rage. If this asshole thought she was going to give up just like that he had another thing coming!

"What makes you think I'll just give up?" She growled eyeing him distastefully.

He snorted, sounding a lot like Sasuke if she did say so herself. He slowly started advancing, and she found herself cornered, with the choice of staying put and letting him apprehend her, or falling into a crowd of sword wielding idiots.

'I've got to take action.' She thought silently

The pinkette scooped up the miniscule amount of chakra from her almost empty reserves and let it flow smoothly into her fist; her glare never left the eyes of the aloof man in front of her.

"SHANNARO!" She roared, as she released her fist, and catapulted at the surprised man's body.

Time seemed to stop as her fist made contact with his finely built stomach, his eyes displayed something akin to horror in that split moment, and her eyes were the definition of satisfaction, and before even a grunt could be shed from the man in front of her, his body was launched backwards sending him crashing straight through that mast's pole, and careening downward. As his body hit the ground it created somewhat of a crater in the deck, its floor boards flew out like jagged splinters searching for flesh.

"That'll teach him!" Sakura proclaimed triumphantly through her heavy breathing. She swayed dangerously, but continued to assess her handiwork; she had created quite a sufficient amount of damage.

X-X-X

_FUCK._

Every limb in his body hurt, and a black haze misted over his vision. He was _more_ than sure that pinky had broken a rib or five.

How she had even managed to land that punch on him was beyond him, she had caught him off guard, sure, she had just been lucky, but the real question was how her punch had been _that_ powerful. It had to be a devil fruit of some sort, there was no other explanation for it.

Smoker wheezed as he painfully lifted himself from the crater he had landed in. He had to admit, when he first saw her he had been surprised, he had been expecting a lot of things up on top of that mast, like some lowly criminal, or some oversized gorilla that couldn't put his money where his mouth was. However, the one thing he didn't expect was a pink haired teenage girl with a fiery temper. It had thrown him off a bit, but when he saw the way she looked at him, he could see why she had given his subordinates trouble.

However now, as he sat here gasping for breath, he found himself more than a little bit irritated with the teen.

"Time to step it up a notch." He mumbled hoarsely as his body dispersed into a cloud of smoke.

X-X-X

Something was wrong. Humans don't just turn into smoke like that. Was that a clone she had just hit? No, it couldn't have been a clone! It would have dispersed as soon as her fist had hit his stomach!

Questions, questions, questions, yet no answers! This was becoming increasingly frustrating.

However, the smoke that the buff man had disappeared in was a smidge more worrying at the moment, seeing how the cloud of dense grey was traveling at unnatural speeds, to where she stood no less.

"Shit!" She cursed as she jumped to the side when the smoke came shooting at her, yet it seemed to follow her and before she could do anything, she found her appendage consumed by the smoke, and what seemed to be a firm hand gripped her. Her arm was forced behind her back and he gripped her other arm in an arm breaking position.

Before her eyes, the thick grey cloud morphed into a human figure and solidified into the panting figure of the man she had just pummeled into the ground. His eyes were glaring straight at her, and his hands gripped her arms like steel cuffs.

Sakura struggled against his grip but found she couldn't escape in her state of chakra depletion and grogginess.

"Get the fuck off!" She bellowed as she continued to struggle against his grip.

He grunted slightly at the sheer strength of the girl, who knew such strength could be stored in such a petite body.

"Sorry, but I can't do that." He said flatly, with no sympathy conveyed in his tone. Her glare pierced through him but he remained unaffected as he once again morphed into smoke, dragging the poor girl down to the deck where the livid crew was waiting for her.

"CAPTAIN! WHAT DO WE DO WITH HER?" Bellowed a faceless man in the crowd.

"You do nothing," He said, authority clearly displayed in his posture, "Seeing how none of you were capable of apprehending her, I think I can handle this little squirt just fine. " He finished, his eyes searched the crowd of men for anyone who objected.

After a moment of standing stationary, Sakura once again found herself being forced along by the mint haired man, he not once looked at her until she found herself at a small door, which seemed to be his private quarters.

"Lucky little you, it seems that you get to join us for our meeting with the head of marines." He said in a mocking voice that made her bristle.

"Who the fuck, are the marines?" She demanded rudely.

"You're kidding me right?" He said with what sounded like disbelief.

X-X-X

"You're kidding me right?"

Smoker eyed the girl behind him looking for any trickery, but found none clearly displayed. She had to be kidding, there couldn't be anyone on the entire fucking _planet_ that didn't know what the marines were. It was impossible. Yet here was this little pink hair girl that seemed to be a total contradiction.

"Before you go jumping to conclusions can I please explain something?" She asked suddenly

He didn't answers, as he noticed her posture was sagging, and she looked to be exhausted, so he took the liberty of dragging her into his office. With a swift movement, he took the cuffs he had hung up by the door and hand cuffed her to a chair in front of his desk, and with one last shove, he planted her into the seat.

"Talk." He said as he grabbed five cigars on his desks and lit them, the ones he had before had been knocked out of his mouth from the impact of her hit.

Rage was clearly displayed in her eyes, however, it seemed she had a shred of common sense in her, and she decided to just look down into her lap, using her pink hair to curtain her face.

"Something had happened, I don't remember what, it was just instantaneous and I didn't know what to do, but I fell. I fell far, my friends were gone, they weren't there. I'm almost sure they're dead," as she said this she stiffened slightly "I don't know how I got here, and I don't remember where I came from. I just remember names. My name, my friends names…" She trailed off, and Smoker observed her with a bit of pity. Maybe this girl wasn't so much of a criminal as he thought she was.

"Hey, look... I'll see what I can do to help you out. After my meeting with the marines, which is a military force by the way, I'll drop you off at the next port; maybe give you a little money." He said evenly, letting out a billow of smoke.

Sakura looked up at the man through her bangs, a little bit of admiration in her eyes.

"What's your name?" He asked, "I am Captain Smoker."

Sakura lifted her head up and gazed at him through her serene viridian eyes. She nodded her head slightly as a makeshift bow as a sign of thanks.

"I am Sakura."

**A/N Hey okay so finished, I'm so sorry it took this long. I spent most of the day writing this, so you should be thankful, I'm not usually this dedicated. I did however, feel really bad because most of you have been waiting for me to update and have been feeling all bad because I was sick so yeah. Here's a cute little chapter that I put a lot of effort into.**

**Please oh please leave a review, I love them so much and they make my day, guest or not I love them so much. **

**Thanks so much for putting up with me and my story!**


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